Chapter 36- Scorched Earth

[Witch_Doctor]

I heard that. By my very unscientific observation of the forums it seems we have 3 main camps on the reading of the journals: Michael, Scratch, and Ink/TOWTM/Pinstripes. I'm sure there are other plausible choices but I keep seeing these come up most often. In my mind, it's one of the biggest "mysteries" we have right there with "how did Zday happen?", "who the hell is Ink/TOWTM/Pinstripes?", "Cracks in Inglewood?", and "Randy? WTF is up with that dude?"

Man, season 4 can't come soon enough....

I've always wondered if the time before the outbreak will come into play. At the beginning of Micheal's journal he states that, "As I recall, the months leading up to when this all began weren't much to remember. "
My thoughts on the journals are that they are used by Micheal to narrate the story. I don't suspect that they are the only source that he draw's upon for narrating, but that he includes verbal accounts to piece together the story.

Some pieces of evidence that suggests that Micheal is narrating his and others' accounts.

1. The last part of Chapter 2 when he sends Saul and Angel on the first scavenging mission, he says he is able to piece together what happened from their account.
2. Chapter 4 shows Micheal writing in his journal while being repeatedly interrupted. He then decides that others keep journals too.
3. Chapter 30, we witness a 'probable' account of what took place during the Chinook mission. Micheal says that it was pieced together from various accounts and might not be entirely accurate.

One can also argue that Micheal is not the soul narrator of the story, but that the audience is simply able to view it from the perspective of a number of central characters, i.e. we see it because s/he sees it. However, what suggests otherwise is the fact that on at least one occasion, Saul's and Angel's scavenging mission that takes place BEFORE the journals were mandatory, Micheal states that he is relating what he was told after the fact.